Magical World of Aleister Crowley

116 Pages·2012·32.63 MB·English

Ask rhc intclligent man in the srreer what he
irssociates with the name Aleister Crowley
ancl hc will say either 'black magic and
scxual orgies' or he may quote Mario praz,s
dcscription of Crowley - 'satanic occultist'.
But Crowley was far more than a vulgar
black magician, although he once sacrificed
a toad which he had baptized .Jesus of Contents
Nazareth'; he was not a mere sexual
athlereJ although at various times in his life
he indulged in every perversion from
sodomy to coprophilia; and certainly he was
no ordinary 'satanic occultist,, although he ix
Acknowledgments
did identify an invisible entity called Aiwass,
who he affirmed was his personal .Holy r The Magical Decade I
Guardian Angel', with the Christian devil. z The Golden Dawn J5
For Crowley was the synthesizer of what he 3 The Book oJ the Law JJ
called 'Magick', an occult system of clarity, + Towards the Silver Star 41
consisrency, intellectual power and, in some 5 Choronzon 51
respects, beauty. The three main strands 6 The Rites of Eleusis 6t
from which he wove his magick - spelt thus 7 Book Four 69
to differentiate it from non-Crowlevan 8 Western Tantrism 77
magic - were rhe ritual magic of the Golien The Departure and Later Life of Neuburg 89
9
l)awn, an organization which numbered IO Sexual Wisdom 97
W. B. Ycats amongsr irs leading members; II America 111
thc scxual occultism, a sort of
western r2 Leah Hirsig 126
(v]ccrlsmioann o f tantra, which he derived from a r3 The End of the Abbey t37
soLlrce; and the teachings of
a r+ Wanderings of a Magician 145
nrystcrious manuscript called The Book of
thc Luzu, which hc claimed had r5 Twilight of a Master 155
been
(lictllc(l t6 A Magical Revival and a Death 163
to him by Aiwass.
t7 The Aftermath 170
lirirrrcis l(ing nrlkcs a clctailcd cxamination
ol'e irclt ol't hcse s()urccs in thc coursc of this Notes 191
hiogrirphy ol' Orowley us rnagician. 'l.his A Note on Fufther Aeading 199
lroolt th.ows ncw liglrt on Orowlcy ancl will
203
Index
t'tuttiuue,tl rttt lutLlt llrtlt
ll"ttlt ,\ lut,t:,'t r,l illrrt!t'ttIittrt.s
1,6.5o rrel
lN llF
1151;.1'
lllustrations
r
Crowley when a schoolboy
z MacGregor Mathers, head of the Order of the Golden Dawn
3 Crowley with his first wife Rose Kelly and their child in r 9 r o
4 A drawing of Crowley by Augustus John
g Crowley demonstrating the yogic technique of breath control
(pranayama)
6 Victor Neuburg
Allan Bennett
7
8 Leila Waddell playing her violin for the mysteries of Eleusis
9 Leah Hirsig in front of Crowley's portrait of her
IO The Abbey of Thelema with the great rock of Cefalu towering
in the background
II Croylgl and Leah Hirsig with the children outside the Abbey
of Thelema
t2 Jane Wolfe and Leah Hirsig outside the Abbey of Thelema
r3 Raoul Loveday
t+ Betty May, Loveday's wife
t5 The Sanctum Sanctorum - Crowley's temple at the Abbey of
Thelema
16 Crowley - a self-portrait
r7 Crowley's drawing of his second wife Maria Theresa Ferrari
de Miramar
r 8 Crowley holding his magic wand
19 Crowley drawn by Augustus John two years before his death
in
1947
The author and publisher are grateful to the following sources for
their kind permission to reproduce the illustrations: The Radio
Times Hulton Picture Library for illusFatign numbers | , 2, 3, 7,
8, 9, ro, tr, t2, t3, 14, r5, r6n t7, and I8; The Fogg Art
Museum, Harvard University (Grenville L. Winthrop Bequest)
and Sir Caspar John and Romilly John for illustration 4; Equinox
magazine, illustration 5; The Harry Price Library for illustration
Acknowledgments
5; The National Portrait Gallery and Sir Caspar John and Romilly
for illustration r9.
John
To G.A.D. and G.J.Y. for giving me access to rare Crowle-y
manur"ript and prinied material. To C' W' Daniel anil Co' Ltd'
for p"t*i.rion io quote from Crowley on Chtist and The Secret
nrtult oJ the OT0. 'io Michael Horniman of A' P' Watt and to
&"b.""torrgh and John Curtis of Weidenfeld and Nicolson for
hclpful sugge"stions glven at the manuscript stage 1f fit book' To
the statr # the griiish Library, the Hariy Price Library and the
itbr"ry of the Warburg Institute for their willing assistance. To
ttt" p.iUtirtt.rs of the m"agarirre Agapd-f9r .their excellent Crowley
CrossJndex. To Stephen"Skinnei and Isabel Sutherland for useful
Nggestions. To Elizabeth Lewis for her patience in tyPing'
J
fik
The Mtgical Decade
oN THE EvENING of r8 November 1898 a twenty-three-year-
old poet named Aleister Crowley waited impatiently in the ante-
room of the London masonic temple situated at Mark Masons'
Hall, Great Queen Street. He was convinced that he was about
to have the ultimate secrets of life and death revealed to
him.
He was wearing .an ankle-length black robe, his eyes were
|l, blindfolddd, and around his waist was a triple-coiled cord. By
!,
:l:', i, his side, holding the ends of the binding cord in his right hand,
was another man who was to be his guide during part of the
ceremony which was to take place. The guide was more spectac-
ularly dressed than Crowley. He too wore a black robe, but over
it he wore a billowing white cloak with a red cross on its left
breast. Round his neck he wore a broad band of white ribbon
from which hung a large cruciform badge and in his left hand he
carried a red and gold sceptre surmounted by a carving of a
miniature episcopal mitre.
With a blast of hot and incense-laden air the doors which the
two men faced were flung open from the inside and the blind-
folded Crowley was led through them. He felt himself sprinkled
with water, his nose wrinkled from the astringent tang of
smouldering perfumes as a censer was waved over his head, and
he heard a voice address him: 'Child of Earth, why seekest thou
to enter our sacred hall? Why seekest thou admission to our
Order?' His guide answered on his behalf: 'My soul wanders in
darkness and seeks the light of the hidden knowledge, and I
2 THE MAGICAL WORLD OF ALEISTER CRO.WLEY TIIE MAGICAL DECADE
believe that in this Order knowledge of that light may be scarlet:. The three who surrounded Crowley addressed him in
unison: 'We receive thee into the Golden Dawn''
obtained.'
Crowley, still blindfolded, was led forward, guided into a The rest of the ceremony was something of an anuti-Tcl im*"atxo'
k"Twtnrhodeeue n"lldi nia:hgt ipttho.e s ittpriioraonnm gbpleetf,ion argen doa fhc ihusib sri icggahul itad hletaa hnr deo nps lwawcoheriedc hao nnla yoth-aaet h ret rtdiha nacrgto lheses. CoqJhortar Joiardgwt"lt iul.u"e sJ"yirtur u,w* .dr"ua.r"rs,ld "oai"n*srfpg s tntlho"reeurrrr oc""ept.tqe ihoHudyni vtee ian o lwei fnt naht htse te h, ts seosee iyccdOmrr eerbftdtoso e'sl tstro e efu:P xsof,ae t hsmdthie gpiernn l eos Gt' ch tocqehuli dP"liten: ni.stto ialDc:ti ieao*twineln, st h :--e:
. . . keep secret this Order, its name, the names of its members, and the triangle on the-altar was an image of ,'that triune Light whicrt
proceedings that take place at its meetings. . . . moved in darkness and formed thI world out of darkness" while
. , . not suffer myself to be hypnotised, mesmerised or placed in such a state the altar itself was an emblem of 'visible natufe' concealing
of passivity that any uninitiated Person or Power may cause me to lose control within herself the mysteries of all dimensions"
of my thoughts, words or actions. Finally the meeting closed with a sort of mock communion -
. . . persevere with courage and determination the labours of the Divine Science f"irt"tpant in ti'e rite eating a morsel of bread and salt' 'as
even as I shall persevere with courage and determination through this ceremony "w""of,. r'of E"ith', and swallowing a mouthful of wine' 'the con-
which is their image, anil I will not debase my mystical knowledge in the labour .'.ir"a"a emblem of elemental Water' - followecl by 1 qrayel:
of evil magic at any time tried or under any temptation' 'May what we have partaken maintain us in our search for the
The oath concluded with a stafement that 'if I break this, my orririter."rr"., the Sione of the Philosophers' the Summum
mdwCehaiatighedioflcysua lota onfv bidtsh liihbgisolae stO itwoilrneeda, e cPIruo , nsrbr ueyabns mw ti fiho t sifcml awhyin siI l ebl mlysf, ie gthbth eyitn l*f iagmyhll o tonsti\lioMannignn cbfaloayn sndthsh 'pe.ean rtSa' leytcsoree dat iO.o"""St"aruf*"ac",h o sTwfo rcatuhiseee t Ai WeGlsei soiwsdldtoheemirnc hCaD nrafodlow wPunlree,is ryftheh'sece tdi nm Hiitanoipas pttt iihonineenfs l ulsian'e'snttot iqa tulh aoerf t eHthre ero mmfe atthnicey
Crowley was then led around the temple, 'purified with w-ater nineteenth centurY.
arrd consecrated with fire' - in other words further sprinklings Who was Aleister Crowley, and what personal- and-social
arencdi tceedn soinvgJsr h-i mha, da nadn winavso ctoatlido:n 'Cohf i'ltdh eo fL Eoardrt ho,f lothneg Uhansivt etrhsoeu' fOacJtgorts"A hfayd ginivdeunc ethde h fiomre ntoa mseeesk othf eg dwwisadrodm A olef xtahne dGeor ld(iet nw aDsa ownnl?y
dwelt in darkness, quit the night and seek the day!' With these in ti, t"t" t"eens that he adopted the name Aleister) he was born at
words the blindfold w4s removed from his eyes and he was at Leamington, not far from shakespeare's Stratford-on-Avon' on
last able to see his surroundings. rr October r875. His Parents were both 'Dar\ites" members
of Hthee wmas h sotaldnidnignglc ienp tthree sm, idthste oof tah etrri oa o sf wroobredd, omvaegric hiainss h, etwado' oiif, thEex "ml.rsoi.s,nt ee xBtrreetmhr"e n*.i ttTgi eo yf othueng u Altrlae-isPtreort e-s itta nist pseerhcat pksn obwesnt taos
aBnefdo rter iahnimg lew apsr einv ioaultsalry o mn ewnhtiicohn esdto, obdr,e iand a, dsdaitlito, nw tion eth, ea c rreodss- "*""i," " o,r.r ghhi,m h ibsy'p tahree nntasm' feu nbiya mwheinctha-lhiset pbreelfieefrsre; dt htaot baen- yk nreogwunla -r
sohfa tdheed laalmtapr awnedr ea btwowo l poilfl adrrsie, do nroes ew pheittea lsa- nOd no nthee b olathcekr, saindde ,t"i"i"tl rrr.f *"s a denial ooff tthhee Dsapribriytuitael Spericets wtheoroed d eosf tianlel db efolier vheersll,-
beyond them was a dais on which sat three immobile figures, one i"",I""ll'arro, rra-mbobvmeb aelrls t hat every single word of the Old and New
clad in yellow, another in bright blue and the third in flame Testaments had been fully inspiredly the Holy Ghost' So strongly
THE MAGICAL WORLD OF ALEISTER CROWLEY THE MAGICAL DECADE
were these doctrines imposed upon him, that for the first eleven tortures he had suffered, was removed frqm school' Fgr the-next
years or so of his life, he was quite unable to believe that anyone two years he was educated at home by a series of tutors, all of
seriously doubted them, and he was forced to conclude that those whom he found 'surpassing prigs' save for a certain Archibald
who belonged to religious bodies such as the Church of England Douglas, who won his pirpil's gratitude and admiration by
or the Methodists, did so out of a pure delight in wickedness. introducing him to bridge, billiards and women.
Early in r887 however Aleister's father died and shortly after- In r89r he was sent to Malvern, a public school which he
wards he was sent away to a Darbyite school in Cambridge. The hated and where, so he said, 'sodomy was the rule' and his study-
experiences he underwent there at the hands of the headmaster, mate actually made money by selling homosexual favours.
who seems to have been a mixture of religious maniac and sado- Crowley told his family of this, was remoYed from the school and
masochist, were so vile that his strong belief in the Darbyite sent to Tonbridge, where his health broke down for a reason
version of evangelical Christianity was transformed into an un- which, as he himself rather mysteriously expressed it, 'would
dying hatred of the sect and those who upheld its doctrines. have been my own fault or misfortune if I had been properly
The headmaster in question, d former Anglican clergyman educated but in fact was the direct result of the vile system
named d'Arcy Champney, encouraged every form of tale-bearing. which . . . handed me over bound and blindfold to the outraged
Informers were regarded as 'instruments of the Lord Jesus', and majesty of Nature'.1 What actually happened was that, ignorant
any story they told, however intrinsically improbable, was taken of sexual hygiene, he had caught gonorrhoea from a Glasgow
as the truth, as 'the Lord bringing to light that which was hid in prostitute.
darkness'. The result was inevitable; young boys sought the More private tutoring followed until in the autumn of r 894
headmaster's favours by telling him of (imaginary) crimes com- he went up to King's College, London, in order to study
mitted by one or other of their contemporaries. chemistry and other pre-medical subjects. He evidently changed
One such informer wasra boy named Glascott, who told his mind about a medical career for in October r 895 he went up
d'Arcy Champney that he had visited Crowley in the previous' to Cambridge, originally with the intention of reading Moral
holidays and found him lying in a drunken stupor at the foot of Sciences (that is, philosophy, psycholog;r and economics) but
the stairs. No attempt was made to check the story by for rapidly switching to classics.
example asking Crowley's mother whether there was any truth in Crowley's three years at Cambridge were huPPy ones. He had
it. Instead the miserable boy, still only twelve years old, was sub- plenty of money, his father having left a considerable fortune in
jected to a fearsome regimen of boycott and semi-starvation. He trust for him, and he was able to eat and drink well, have
was put on a diet of bread and water, no one was permitted to luxuriously furnished rooms' buy limited and finely bound
play with him and his fellow pupils were forbidden to speak to editions of his favourite poets and spend each vacation either
him. Even the masters were forbidden to engage him in con- climbing in the Alps - he was a good though unorthodox
versation save for instructional purposes. mountaineer - or engaging in winter sPorts.
This brutality continued for a term and a half until, threatened Throughout this period he maintained d vigorous sex life, at
with the disgrace of expulsion, Crowley 'confessed' to the truth first fairly normal, conducted with the aid of prostitutes and girls
of Glascott's absurd invention and other equally imaginary sins - he managed to iick up in pubs and cigar-shops, but extending
that he had held a mock prayer mbeting and that he had attempted into homosexual activities in which he played the passive part.
to corrupt another boy. Eventually an uncle intervened and These probably commenced during the course of a brief holiday
Crowley, by now physically and mentally ill as a result of the at Kiel - there is a poem in White Stains, Crowley's first and
THE MAGICAL WORLD OF ALEISTER CROWLEY THE MAGICAL DECADE 7
fseudonymous publication, which certainly seems to imply that magic, and when a Carlist knighthood was to be conferred
such was the case. Most of these homosexual affairs were free upon him, spent the previous night in prayer and meditation
from any emotional involvement, Crowley's enjoyment of them before his sword and spurs.
being derived from the satisfaction of the strongly masochistic The murky intellectual twilight of the Celtic Church did not
element in his own psychological make-up. For one man however, satisfy Crowley for long. He began to feel that behind it - indeed
a friend of Aubrey Beardsley's named Herbert Charles Jerome behind all religious groups which had something of the truth in
Pollitt, a female impersonator who called himself Diane de their teachings - must lurk one true church, a Secret Sanctuary
Rougr,2 he seems to have felt a genuine affection, and as late as of the Saints. Inspired by hints about such a Secret Sanctualy
rgro published a flattering poem about him. which he found in one of the publications of the occult writer
At Cambridge Crowley was a romantic of the romantics. He A. E. Waite, Crowley \,vrote to him asking for advice. Waite's
affected a vaguely poetical appearance, wearing floppy hats and reply was characteristically vague, urging Crowley to read
even floppier ties; he wrote much verse, mostly imitative of 'i1 mystical literature, particularly The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, and
i
Swinburne and Browning, which he published at his own expense; to await the coming of a 'Master'. Crowley followed Waite's
he was a profound admirer of Beardsley's art and Pater's prose. advice and studied mystical tracts. This soon led him into an
He even concerned himself with the seedier doings of the interest in alchemy and its symbolism on which, with typically
European ultra-Right, supporting Don Carlos, Pretender to the youthful arrogance, he soon began to regard himselfas an expert.
Spanish throne and joining a Carlist volunteer group in which he In the summer of r 898, when Crowley was mountaineering at
learned to service and fire a machiqe-gun. Fortunately for himself Zermatt, he went into a beer-house and, with a desire to impress,
he was not aboard The Firefy, a British yacht loaded with rifles began to demonstrate his alchemical expertise by talking about
and English Carlists when it was captured by the Spanish Customs the subject at great length. To his surprise one of those present, a
in r 899. young man named Julian L. Baker, seemed to know a great deal
The English Legitimists an extraordinary mixture of more about alchemy than Crowley himself. Was this, Crowley
Carlists, Jacobites and supporters of such eccentrics as the asked himself, the Master whom he was seeking? A day or two
claimant to the Imperial Throne of Byzantium - tended to be as later Crowley plucked up courage to ask Baker the same question.
curious in their religious opinions as they were in their politics. No, said Baker, he was not, but on his return to London he
Many of them for example were members of the Order of would introduce him to one who was.
Corporate Reunion, a tiny body whose leader F. G. Lee, an The 'Master' in question turned out to be George Cecil Jones,
extreme Anglo-Catholic who claimed to have been consecrated an industrial chemist who lived in Basingetoke, Hampshire, but
as a bishop, made it his business to re-ordain 'validly' as many had a small office and analytical laboratory in the City of London.
Episcopalian clergymen as he could persuade to undergo the Jones was impressed with Crowley, introduced him to the
ceremony. Golden Dawn, acted as one of the officers inltiation
"t'|fu
Crowley was no exception to the religious eccentricity that described earlier in the chapter and assured hie ploiegd that, in
characterized his fellow-Legitimists. He joined the 'Celtic spite of the not very impressive instructions givenlhirn at the end
Church', an organization tinier and even more mysterious than the of the rite - Crowley complained that his instructors had bound
Order of Corporate Reunion, and for a time took its antics very him with terrible oaths of secrecy arid then confided the Hebrew
seriously indeed. He lived and moved,' as he himself later alphabet to his safe keeping - he had taken the first step of the
admittedrs in a mystical haze of fairies, seal-women, glamour and journey which could lead him to tho Sanctuary of the Saints.
*
THE MAGICAL WORLD OF ALEISTER CROWLEY THE MAGICAL DECADE
In spite of such claims however the Golden Dawn was not a one Renaissance writer had suggested the same thing, was that
particularly saintly organization. Its real function was the practice human will-power was a real force and that the trained and con-
of what its initiates referred to as 'the mediaeval occult sciences', centrated will was capable of producing apparently supernormal
particularly ritual magic, the supposed art of 'causing change to effects. The third was a rehashid version of the mediaeval theory
occur in accordance with will'. There is no call to be astonished of the *acroffi ('the great world', the universe as a whole)
by this. The last twenty years of the nineteenth century - and and the microcosm (the 'little world', that is, man himself).
particularly the last ten .- were a period when many Western Every factor present in the macrocosm, L6vi asserted, is also
European intellectuals, particularly the so-called decadents, re- present in man himself and by the use of the appropriate magical
acted against the materialist certainties of contemporarl scientists techniques it would be possible to link up the two.
and philosophers by showing an interest in the occult in general L6vi, always the romantic theoretician rather than the practi-
and ceremonial magic in particular. Such an interest was dis- tioner of magic, made only one attemPt to Put his principles to
played by Oscar Wilde when he based the whole plot of his novel the test of experiment. It was not very successful - he received
Dofian Gray on a magical interaction between a portrait and the some gloomy answers to questions he put to 'the other world'
individual it delineated, by Beardsley when he drew his portrait and he seems to have suffered a mild attack of carbon monoxide
of the fiend Asmodeus and 'how he revealed the Black Art to a poisoning from the fumes of the charcoal he was burning in a
Neophyte', and by Arthur Machen when he wrote his story 'The brazier.
Great God Pan'. It is not surprising then that there were some In spite of this it is simple to see any magical ritual in terms of
who desired to go further than t\js, actually ta practise magic. L6vi's principles. Suppose a magician wishes to obtain knowledge
Interestingly enough one of these was Oscar Wilde's wife of some obscure occult science, a matter which is traditionally
Constance who like Crowley underwent initiation into the one of the attributes of the god Hermes (Mercury). His task
Golden Dawn.a then is to supplement his psychic hermetic (that is, mercurial)
The association between decadence and magic began in France deficiencies by drawing upon the hermetic qualities of the
as early as the r84os and r85os when the poet and novelist universe as a whole - to use the terminqlog;r of the magician, he
Adolphe Esquiros produced a novel in which the protagonist was must 'invoke the god Hermes'" He carries out this ceremony by
a hermaphroditic magician who wrote love letters to the moon, 4I. surrounding himself with things, numbers and substances tradi-
and Alphonse-Louis Constant, under the pseudonym Eliphas L6vi, tionally associated with Hermes. The nurnber of Hermes is eight,
wrote two booksE in which the magical tradition was presented so he has an eight-sided altar standing in an octagon; his temple is
in a highly romanticized form and yet, at the same time, ration- illuminated by eight lights; he has eight dishes of burning
alized by the presentation of three principles which according to incense and he eats fish and drinks white wine, foods associated
L6vi magic into the domain of science. with Hermes since classical times. Having designed hi6 cpremony
ples were simple enough and soon captured with the appropriate correspondences, the magicdary q,$tr his will-
many European occultistr. TheS* of these power to send up a 'ray' which extends into ot&r jilanes and
was that the material universe was only taps the hermetic energies of the macrocosm, thusigtvlng himself
a part and by no means the most important part of total reality - the qualities appropriate to gaining a knowledge of obscure
in other words that there were other 'planes' of existence and sciences.
other modes of consciousness besides the physical. The second. At first L6vi was regarded as no more than anamusing eccentric.
which L6vi probably derived from Mesmer, although mo6lf,"t Few read his books and the first editions of them were still inprint
. Jraer,!r,,i
10 THE MAGICAL W'ORLD OF ALEISTER CROWLEY THE MAGICAL DECADE 11
a quarter ofa century after their publication. In 1875 L6vi died 'Salons de Ia Rose-Croix', between r89z and r897. The presiding
almost forgotten. Within ten years however he had a small but genii of these exhibitions were the more 'decadent' painters of
impressive band of French intellectuals as his, posthumous ihe time - Gustave Moreau, F6licien Rops, Georges Rouault and
the Comte de Larmandie. The magical artistic theory which
dniosuci"plilrets C. Tahtuisll ec aMmeen dabbso,u ta tmhraonu gwhh oth hea din fkluneonwcne Lo6f vthi ea nPdo heat da nind dominated these exhibitions was summed uP by P6ladan in a
fact introduced him to Victor Hugo. Sometime around 1884 manifesto issued by his order.
Mendtss met the Marquis Stanislas de Guiata, a young poet of Artist! You are a priest: Art is the great Mystery. . . '
great promise, and urged him to read L6vi. The Marquis_tookhis Artist! You are a king: Art is the true EmPire. . . .
Friendrs advice, read L6vi and was immediately subjected to what Artist! You are a magician: Art is the great miracle' ' ' '
he himself referred to as the coup de Joudre occulte, 'the occult Similar occult interests to those of the French decadents were
thuHndee crshtaronkgee'd. his way of life completely, read magical and deiisgpilhatyielrd abnyd a n sinuerptireissi.n gtalyk lear gfeo nr uemxabmerp 9lef EFn. gwlit. wRroitlefers ( 'oBfa rtohne
alchemical works rather than poetry, attempted to contact the Clrvo'), the author of the enchanting Toto stories and since the
gJinxotemeenst,h u-cnednintuesry, apnhdy soictihaenr P'ealreamceelsnutsa rhya bde winrgitste' on,f wanhdo min thhies pLuf bali ccaotilot nfoigf uAre. .J .R Ao.l fSey mwoanss 'ns o@t eosntdlyo raC ocwomoinp lergte34 bseomlieevtehirn.ign
scarlet draped study-cum-alchemical laboratory experimented astrology uni astrologer in his own right but he also
with hashish, cocaine and other drugs in an attemPt to 'lQosen dabblei'in ri"tu "aol* pm"ategnict. Indeed on one occasion he actually
(tohe le gaivrde eitrss eoaf rtthhley steonuel'm -e,tnht aatn ids w,'taon deenra bthlee huinsi vseorsuel taesm itp worilaleridly. mcaanntaeg-rebdu rtyo winhvoo lhvaed nm.a nHag. eBde tnos obne,c oam seo nb ootfh tha eR oAmrcahnb icshagthpo l-iocf
likeS-omonin ddeed G luitiaetraa rhya da nsudr'arorutinsdtieci l inhdimivsideulfa wlsi tahn da sinm a1l8l b8a5n tdh eoyf pAr ieilesst carnipd taio bne sot-f stehlilsin gw apso gpiuvleanr nboyv Veylivsyt,a inn Ha omllaagnicda,ol ethxep eyroimunegnet'r
founded the kabalistic Order of the Rose-Croix with the objects son of Oscar Wilde:
of studying and practising magic, spreading a knowledge of occult
principles-among the French public and revivifyi"g th" artistic Father Benson . . . had been deeply impressed with Rolfe's casting of
iif" of W.rtern Europe. Its leading members included not only horoscopes. . . . He said that Rolfe had evidently devoted a vast amount of
the Marquis himself but Erik ('esot'-Erik) Satie, the composer time to ihe study of the stars, had found a number of very obscure books on the
and pianist whose works are sometimes still performed today; subject, including one quite unknown book by Albertus Magnus, and that he
probably knew more about astrology than any living man'
Jos6phin 'SAr' P6ladan, wizard, novelist, fanatical Wagnerian and The most interesting story, by far, that Father Benson told me was of an
unorthodox Catholic; and Oswald Wirth, an exPert on tarot experiment in white Magic which he had carried out at Rolfe's request. Rolfe
cards who considered it important to devote his life to curious wrote to him one day in a state of great excitement and told him that he had
'ocWcuhlti lbea tGtleusl'a taag awinasts t hmosoes ht ein ctoenrseisdteeredd i n'b latrcakd_mitiaogniacila onsc'c. u,lt dinissctrouvcetrioedn,s eaitsh ehro iwn htios Ablrbinergtu as bMoaugt naus c ebortoaki no re ivne snotm' eH me ewdioauevlda l nmoatn, uastc rtiJprat,t
practices, P6ladan was more intent on creating a genuinely juncture, reveal what the event was, but he implored Father Benson to make
;f mystical 'Rosicrucian' art and made frantic efforts to achieve it. the experiment.
i{ So in addition to writing his own novels, such as The Supteme Vice, As the experiment consisted mainly in the repetition of certain prayers and in
, and curiously entitled works of occult instruction - one was certain periods of religious contemplation, Father Benson saw no harm in
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entitled How to Become a Fairy - he organized six art exhibitions, carrying it out. Certain rules were also laid down concerning hours of rising and
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